Rafael Benítez's feud with Sir Alex Ferguson continued last night as the Spaniard refused to congratulate the Manchester United manager for winning the Premier League title. Benítez offered praise to United for their success but twice declined the opportunity to applaud Ferguson for his achievement as Liverpool secured a 2-0 victory at The Hawthorns that relegated West Bromwich Albion and secured second place.

Asked whether he would congratulate Ferguson in the wake of their 18th League title, Benítez, who had gone public with his grievances with the United manager in January with his infamous list of "facts", replied: "I will say congratulations to Manchester United." Not Sir Alex? "Ah, done well," said the Spaniard begrudgingly, "but I prefer to say congratulations to Manchester United; good club, big club."

It is protocol for the manager that finishes runners-up to send a letter of congratulations to his triumphant counterpart but Benítez gave little indication he will have a pen in his hand over the next few days when he was asked if he would write to Ferguson. "I have had normally to be polite and to respect the other manager at the end of the season. He has said a lot of things that I didn't like. I say congratulations to Man United because they have won and that's it."

Benítez saw his side cruise to a ninth win in 10 League games against Albion although the victory was overshadowed by an incident involving Jamie Carragher and Alvaro Arbeloa, when the central defender squared up to his team-mate and pushed him in the chest.

Benitez said: "Carragher and Arbeloa wanted a clean sheet so they were a little bit nervous. I think it's a positive message in terms of the mentality of the team. We wanted to show character and a winning mentality and to win and stay as close as possible to United. Arbeloa was going forward and then we had some problems in defence that we wanted to protect better because that's 20 clean sheets now." Carragher said: "It was something in nothing. It happened in the heat of the moment. We have kissed and made up. It's just one of those things that goes on from time to time. It's forgotten."